TO PROTECT US FROM BIN LADEN?

 

 

U.S. Air Force
orders bases closed Friday

 

ACC orders commandwide standdown Friday
Air Force Times Monday, 10 September 2007 / 17:38:42 EDT

By BRUCE ROLFSEN

WASINGTON — On Sept. 14, flight lines will be very quiet at Air
Combat Command bases. The entire command — about 100,000
active-duty airmen — is standing down training flights and many
other operations as part of a command-wide safety day.

Command boss Gen. Ronald Keys ordered the Sept. 14 safety
standdown in the wake of the Aug. 30 nuclear incident at Minot
Air Force Base, N.D., in which six cruise missiles armed with nuclear
warheads were loaded onto a B-52H and then flown to Barksdale
Air Force Base, La., without anyone on the ground or bomber
realizing the nuclear weapons were on the plane. It was not until
the B-52H was parked at Barksdale that ground crews discovered
the cruise missiles were carrying real warheads.

Command spokesman Maj. Tom Crosson said wing commanders
would determine how their units review operations and safety
procedures and checklists.

Just how serious Keys takes the lapse of regulations at Minot is
reflected in the fact that the safety stand-down is the first
commandwide safety day in recent memory. In the past, the
command has singled out specific types of aircraft for safety days
and in 1997 the Department of Defense held a departmentwide
safety review day.